Green face of Africa

It’s around midnight. I am sitting in the Holiday beach Hotel restaurant, thinking about this time last year. Last Christmas I was in Glasgow, Scotland and this year in the Gambia, in West Africa. Absolutely, the experiences are different! Even the colours and tastes of fruits and drinks are different. The bottles of beers, JulBrew, are on the tables. In the Gambia, JulBrew, is a local beer founded since 1977. My Gambian friend, Abraham, told me a funny story about JulBrew. He said that the words JulBrew stands for “Join Us Later But Remember Every Weakened”. You can recognise this drink by a picture of a blue bird on the bottle, a kingfisher! You can see this bird every ever here, which can be one of the symbol of the Gambia.



JulBrew

Today is Thursday, 19^th December 2013. Just less than 11 days to the New Year, but the weather is really warm! Sunny Christmas looks strange! Today, with my friends, we had a long day around the Kololi, an area close to the Atlantic Ocean. After the breakfast, we visited the crocodile pond in the heart of Bakau. Locals call it Kachikally! They believe this pond is sacred. Gambians daily are coming here and make a wish. Today, I saw a guy who was murmuring some words near the pond and washing his face with the water. The staff told me he doesn’t have any child, sometimes he is coming here for praying!




The sacred corcodile

The pond

 

  

Taking sun

 

The eye-catching point here is the place, a pond with green water, which may lead this pond to be a sacred place for the locals. Particularly, when the crocodiles are out of the pond, their skins are partially covered with green colour, which give a divine appearance to these creatures. Crocodiles have a spiritual role in the Gambian/ African culture. These clod blood animals are more than just simple creature for the locals. The metaphysical powers have been attached to the crocodiles. Interestingly, the colour of green is symbol of holiness in other religions. In the Islamic countries, locals are applying the dark green for their religious places like mosques, which you can see it in the Gambia as well!